Leading the Hospitality Industry Forward with Responsible THC Beverage Training - March 2026

By Farouk Rajab, President/CEO, RI Hospitality

Hospitality has always been a living industry. It evolves with culture and reflects how people gather, celebrate, and unwind. Every few years, something new enters our space and challenges us to think differently about service, safety, and responsibility.

Today, that change is arriving in the form of hemp-derived THC beverages.

These products are already legal in Rhode Island under the federal Farm Bill, which includes hemp within its framework, and they are beginning to appear in licensed hospitality settings. For some operators, they present opportunity. For others, uncertainty. For everyone, they represent something new entering familiar environments, which calls for clarity.

The question is not whether change will come. It always does. The question is how we respond and whether we are prepared to thrive with it.

RI Hospitality has launched the industry’s leading THC-infused beverage service training designed specifically for hospitality professionals. Not to promote a trend, but to establish standards. Not to create hype, but to create understanding. Our industry deserves a clear framework. Servers and bartenders deserve guidance. Guests deserve informed and responsible service. Policymakers deserve to see an industry that takes this moment seriously.

Hospitality already understands this model. We rely on food safety training and alcohol service certification because we learned long ago that professionalism is built on shared knowledge and clear expectations. THC beverages introduce new variables, including different onset times, different effects, and different guest questions. Without education, those variables create risk. With education, they become manageable.

This training provides that foundation. It explains how these products work, how the body processes them, what responsible service looks like, how to recognize overconsumption, and how to operate within a regulatory environment that is still evolving. It mirrors the structure and accessibility of the certifications our industry already trusts.

More importantly, it reflects why RI Hospitality exists.

We are here to prepare the industry, not chase it. We are here to build infrastructure, not react after the fact. Education is not an add-on to our mission. It is the backbone of it. When workers are trained, they are safer. When operators have standards, they are more confident. When the industry speaks with one voice, it is taken seriously.

This training also reframes the conversation around regulation. Rather than being viewed as something that must be controlled from the outside, hospitality is demonstrating that it can lead from within. We are showing lawmakers and regulators that this industry is capable of foresight, structure, and accountability. That is advocacy at its most effective.

Hospitality thrives on trust. Guests trust us to create spaces that feel safe and welcoming. Employees trust us to prepare them for the realities of their jobs. Communities trust us to operate responsibly.

Moments like this test that trust.

THC beverages will not be the last new category our industry encounters. The pace of change will only accelerate. What matters is whether we treat these moments as disruptions or as opportunities to strengthen the profession.

By launching this training, Rhode Island is setting a standard. We are saying that hospitality does not wait for problems to appear before acting. We prepare. We educate. We lead.

That is what a modern industry association looks like. And that is what our workforce, our guests, and our state deserve.